The field of the present invention relates to diagnosis and evaluation of dental disease, including dental caries and periodontal disease. In particular, systems and methods are described herein for analysis of digital x-ray images for diagnosis and evaluation of dental caries or periodontal disease.
Diagnosis and evaluation of dental disease (such as dental caries, periodontal disease, or dental abscesses) based on visual inspection of x-rays (either film or digital) is hampered by variations among film, x-ray sources, imaging x-ray sensors, display devices, subjective interpretation by clinicians, and so on. At least one earlier attempt has been made to address such variations by analysis of digital x-ray images for detection of dental caries (i.e. tooth decay or cavities), and is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,742,700 issued to Yoon et al. (said patent is hereby incorporated by reference as if fully set forth herein). However, a subsequent study indicates the earlier system may not be sufficiently reliable in its diagnosis and evaluation of decay (Kang et al., Korean J Oral Maxillofacial Radiology v32 pp187-194 (2002), which is hereby incorporated by reference as if fully set forth herein).
Therefore, a need exists for more reliable systems and methods for diagnosis and evaluation of dental or periodontal disease.